A collection of stories by Kamala Wijeratne

Their Voices Resonate

Reviewed by Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha

A couple of years back Kamala Wijeratne launched her latest novel, Anithyagama: the end of an era, which, through an examination of personal relationships, looked at both the ethnic conflict as well as social decline in relation to a rural squirearchy. I was impressed by the fact that her range has grown, while she brings to bear a pervasive sympathy for the different characters she presents.

This feature is developed still further in her new collection of short stories, for she looks here also at the world beyond humans, at animals and also at nature. ‘The Rape’ is about ruthless land developers, ‘A Living Death’ about the suffering of cattle, even those in theory saved from slaughter.

These two stories are more statements than stories, which is not really a problem given how short they are. In a longer account, ‘Revenge’, Kamala Wijeratne explores a continuing dilemma of development, the conflict between man and elephant as forest lands are used for agriculture and new settlements. A man dies, and a woman, leaving a child, and then an elephant, with a baby who has to be torn away from his dying mother. Nothing judgmental here, but a stark account of increasingly insuperable problems

Another dilemma with no clear answer is presented in ‘The Green Snake’ where a little girl is terrified by a snake which lets her be, leading her to believe it has warned her to go away. So, she is filled with anguish when the dangerous creature is beaten to death when it strays into a vegetable patch.

Understandably enough the most moving stories though are those with elderly women as protagonists. But there are many variations on the situations presented, one woman waiting for her youngest son to come from Canada before she dies, only to find flights cancelled because of Covid just when he is due; another sacrificing herself for a callous daughter; another full of empathy, against her daughter’s better judgment, for the ‘fallen woman’ who has come to her as a domestic aide, whose penchant for jewellery has a mundane explanation; and one who, looked after by her children while in a cardiology ward, sees another killed by the neglect of the nursing staff who concentrate on television instead of giving her prompt attention.

Only once it seemed to me did Kamala Wijeratne take on more than she could handle, when she brought on the ghost of Ehelepola’s wife describing her feelings at the death of her children caused by the flight of her husband. But while this seems forced, the story has a remarkable evocation of the atmosphere of the old Ehelepola Walawwa subsumed into a prison.

There was yet another story in the book, very different from the rest, but recalling a favourite theme of the writer’s. This was about the ethnic conflict, and the importance of personal responses, with a lieutenant sparing an old woman who was obviously hiding her daughter, to which several years later the daughter responds by stopping him going along a heavily mined road. But the story does not end there, for the former lieutenant knows that the girl and her mother may have to face the consequences of their action in saving him.

The collection is a slight one, 10 stories amounting to fewer than a 100 pages altogether. But one has to be thankful that Kamala Wijeratne, now our most senior writer in English, continues to write, having so successfully made the transition from poetry to prose, from simple emotions to all inclusive empathy.